Valhalla Foundation

Valhalla Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Scott Cook — co-founder of Intuit and a Giving Pledge signatory — and his wife Signe Ostby. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Woodside, CA, the foundation has committed over $1 billion through both the foundation and personal giving, deploying more than $133 million in grants during fiscal year 2023 alone. This is emphatically not a foundation that takes cold applications. Its website states plainly: "We do not accept unsolicited requests for funding." Grantees are identified proactively by a professional team of program directors, each responsible for one of six focus areas.

The foundation's grantmaking philosophy is distinctly Silicon Valley in character — it prizes measurement, iteration, and scalability. Grant purposes in IRS filings consistently use "scaling" language: "scaling early childhood development programs," "scaling high-quality public charter schools," "scaling international educational programs." Valhalla is not interested in sustaining programs where they are; it wants to help organizations grow to serve dramatically larger populations. This means applicants must have rigorous outcome data and a credible pathway to 10x growth before any serious conversation begins.

Relationship progression typically follows a pattern: informal conversation with a program director → exploratory or pilot grant → multi-year scaling investment. The 4-grant patterns to leading grantees (KIPP Foundation at $12M across 4 grants, Waterford Institute at $10.2M across 4, One Acre Fund at $12.2M across 4) confirm that multi-year commitments are the norm for organizations that demonstrate results. First-time applicants should realistically expect an 18-to-24-month cultivation process before a major award.

Beyond dollars, Valhalla actively provides non-monetary support: co-funder connections, strategic goal-setting, board governance strengthening, executive coaching, and candid feedback on organizational challenges. This active-partner model means the foundation is selective about organizational fit — they will probe leadership capability, organizational infrastructure, and willingness to engage in honest assessment. Organizations that resist outside input or can't demonstrate rigorous self-evaluation are poorly suited to this funder.

Across 238 recorded grants totaling $278.5 million, Valhalla's grantmaking is concentrated at the upper end of the nonprofit scale. The database-reported average grant of $1.17 million is pulled upward by mega-investments, while the median sits at $525,000 — a more realistic target for organizations newly entering the portfolio. The foundation reported 80 awards in its 2024 disclosure cycle.

Mega-grants ($5M and above): Blue Meridian Partners received the largest single commitment at $35M across 4 grants, followed by UCSF Foundation at $34.5M (medical research), Environmental Defense Fund at $24M, City Fund at $16.7M (public school quality), Educate Girls at $12.7M, One Acre Fund at $12.2M, KIPP Foundation at $12M, and Waterford Institute at $10.2M.

Mid-tier grants ($1M–$5M): Include Center for Policing Equity ($5.25M), The Bridgespan Group ($5M), Braven ($4.5M), Code for America ($4M), Imagine Worldwide ($4M), Nurse-Family Partnership ($3.6M), LENA Foundation ($3.3M), and the Whitehead Institute Fellows Program ($3.4M, recent).

Entry-level grants (under $1M): Range from $5,000 up to $750,000, typically for exploratory investments in new relationships or narrowly scoped projects.

Annual giving trajectory: $13.7M (2015) → $56.8M (2019) → $116.5M (2020, following $457M in founder contributions) → $90M (2022) → $133M (2023). The 2023 level represents peak historical grantmaking — a 48% increase over 2022 — despite assets declining from $839M (2021) to $602M (2023).

Program area breakdown (estimated from grantee data): Education broadly (early childhood + K-12 + data science + international education) absorbs approximately 55-60% of total commitments. Health and medical research accounts for 15-18% (UCSF, Whitehead, Centering Healthcare, Sirum). Collaborative philanthropy intermediaries (Blue Meridian, TED Foundation, Bridgespan) absorb 12-15%. Environmental programs represent 8-10%. International development (One Acre Fund, Educate Girls, Imagine Worldwide, Living Goods) adds approximately 9% of total portfolio value.

Geography: California leads with 93 of 238 recorded grants (39%), followed by New York (38, 16%), Massachusetts (27, 11%), and Illinois (16, 7%). International grantees collectively represent roughly $25M across the documented portfolio.

Valhalla Foundation occupies the upper tier of family foundations in the $500M-$650M asset range. The following peers are drawn from foundations with similar asset sizes in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category:

Valhalla stands out from its asset-range peers on two dimensions. First, its giving ratio is exceptionally aggressive: distributing $133M against $602M in assets in 2023 represents a 22% annual payout rate — well above the 5% legal minimum and roughly 3-4x what many similarly-sized foundations distribute. This reflects the founders' explicit Giving Pledge commitment and suggests the foundation is not accumulating assets for perpetuity. Second, Valhalla operates a professional, specialized program staff across six distinct areas, which is unusual for a family foundation of this size — most comparable foundations run lean operations with a single program officer or a single generalist team. This specialization creates multiple distinct access points for applicants, each managed by a domain expert.

The Stuart Foundation is the closest philosophical peer for education-focused applicants, with a comparable California base and similar K-12 and early childhood focus, though it operates at a much smaller annual giving volume.

The foundation's most significant leadership development in recent years was the December 2023 appointment of Sara Allan as President, following an interim period under Amy Rodde. Allan's arrival brings a strategic and learning-focused orientation aligned with the evidence-based culture Scott Cook and Signe Ostby built.

In February 2026, Valhalla's environmental grantee MethaneSAT published landmark satellite-based findings showing methane emissions in 45 major oil and gas regions average 50% above government inventories — a direct, high-profile validation of Valhalla's decade-long bet on satellite-based methane monitoring through the Environmental Defense Fund.

In July 2025, Valhalla joined a $1 billion NextLadder Ventures coalition alongside the Gates Foundation, Ballmer Group, and Stand Together, the largest co-investment commitment in the foundation's documented history. This signals a meaningful expansion of its collaborative philanthropy strategy beyond its existing $35M commitment to Blue Meridian Partners.

Recent education grants include the Marshall For All program at Marshall University (January 2025, multi-million dollars) and a $6 million commitment to Reach Out and Read National — the second-largest grant in that organization's history. In October 2025, Octave Bioscience received a grant toward the world's first blood test for tracking MS disease progression, extending Valhalla's sustained MS research thread. The Whitehead Institute at MIT received $3.4 million to fund two new Whitehead Fellows, each with five-year appointments, reinforcing the talent-pipeline component of its medical research strategy.

Getting funded by Valhalla requires a relationship strategy, not an application strategy. The foundation does not accept unsolicited requests. Here is what the evidence suggests works:

Map your co-funder ecosystem first. Valhalla co-invests heavily with Blue Meridian Partners, Gates Foundation, Ballmer Group, Emerson Collective, and Omidyar Network. If your organization has funding from any of these, you are in a natural conversation with Valhalla's program staff. Ask your existing funders directly: "Is Valhalla a funder I should know?" A warm introduction from a shared co-funder is the fastest path to a first conversation.

Lead with outcomes data, not narrative. Before any conversation with program staff, assemble: third-party evaluation results (preferably randomized controlled trial or quasi-experimental design), effect sizes on target population outcomes, cost-per-outcome data, and a scaling roadmap with specific milestones. Valhalla's language in every grant purpose is "scaling evidence-based" — if you cannot cite a peer-reviewed evaluation or independent assessment, the conversation will stall.

Target the right program director. The team is organized by focus area, and each director operates independently. For early childhood development: Becky Jaques Hasak, Dana Nunn, or Manisha Shah. For K-12 education: Robert Crosby III. For data science education: Nancy Lue or Rebecca Novak. For environmental innovation: Ross Jensen or Katharine Koshie. For medical research and talent: Christine Rousseau. For collaborative philanthropy/operations: Alex Terman. Engaging the wrong director — or going to general contact channels first — wastes time.

Build field visibility before reaching out. Program directors track their fields through published research, conference presentations, and peer networks. Get published in relevant journals, present at Early Childhood Research Conference, SXSW EDU, ASU+GSV Summit, or relevant biomedical conferences. Being cited or referenced by current Valhalla grantees substantially increases the probability of an introduction.

Frame around scale, not sustainability. Never use the word "sustain" in a Valhalla conversation. Every pitch should answer: what is the barrier preventing you from reaching 10x your current population? What would this grant specifically remove? How does this investment position you for the next level of funder support? The foundation wants to be a catalyst for growth, not a maintenance funder.

Be ready for candid organizational assessment. Valhalla explicitly offers board governance support, executive coaching, and honest feedback. This means they will probe leadership quality and organizational infrastructure during early conversations. Founders or EDs who are defensive or can't identify organizational weaknesses will not advance. Openness to outside challenge signals the collaborative partnership the foundation expects.